Uganda is a regular recipient of American foreign aid. USAID, the State Department subdivision that administers foreign aid, reports that Uganda received $431.2 million in aid in 2008; $416.9 million in 2009; and an estimated $456.8 million in 2010. Requested disbursements for 2011 total $480.3 million.

HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) — Officials in the city of Hoboken, N.J., are defending their response to severe flooding from superstorm Sandy.

Public Safety director Jon Tooke says at least 25 percent of the city on the Hudson River across from Manhattan remains under water. He estimates at least 20,000 people are stranded and says most are being encouraged to shelter in place until floodwaters recede.

Tempers flared Wednesday morning outside City Hall as some residents complained the city was slow to get food and other supplies out to the stranded.

A fragmented nation and a fragmented audience for news is making the country more difficult to govern, PBS News Hour co-anchor Jeffrey Brown said during a weekend talk at Western Washington University.

A generation ago, before cable news channels and internet news sources, most people got their news from the same small collection of sources: three major TV networks and a hometown newspaper or two, Brown said. People gathered around their televisions for the assassination of a president, a walk on the moon, and other major events.

"It was an age of mass media news, one audience sharing a common experience," Brown said. "For the most part, the mass audience experienced such things together."

Brown, featured speaker for the university's Fall Family Open House Saturday, Oct. 27, contrasted that world with the one we live in today, in which Americans can restrict themselves to cable news stations and internet news sources they find most congenial.

"For the most part, we now live in the world of niches," Brown said.

He acknowledged that the availability of more choices was a good thing, but also noted that the change seems to be part of a far more divided and bitter political atmosphere.

"If we only connect with like-minded people, how do we hear other views?" Brown asked. "It's hard not to feel it has some relationship to the divisions around us."

After 24 people were arrested last night on charges of breaking into stores, Jersey City has imposed a city-wide curfew on pedestrians and all businesses overnight, officials said today.

"We have to provide for the welfare and safety of all our residents" during the recovery from Hurricane Sandy, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said. "This limitation will assist us in achieving this goal."

Pedestrians must be off the streets in all areas of the city from 7 p.m. tonight until 7 a.m. tomorrow, Jersey City spokesman Stan Eason said. All businesses in the city must be closed during that period, Eason said.

Originally, businesses with power were allowed to operate during their normal hours. Under the new curfew policy being implemented tonight, "all" businesses must be closed without exception, Eason said.

As much as 75 percent of the city has been without power since Monday. PSE&G officials said that power is expected to be fully restored by Monday, Nov. 5. The city has also alerted residents not to drive on city street in order to allow emergency and road crews to make repairs.

And, in New York . . .

Hurricane Sandy brought out the worst yesterday in some sleazy New Yorkers, who looted stores and homes across the city.

Some posed as Con Ed workers to dupe their victims.

Police arrested more than a dozen looters in the Rockaways and Coney Island, which had been evacuated, and stood guard outside ravaged stores at the South Street Seaport.

“This morning when they told us the water receded, I walked back to the house to feed [my pets],” said Eric Martine, 33, a cabby who lives in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach. “Guys were looting, pretending they were Con Ed and holding people up. It was sick.”

Residents said police warned them to beware of crooks pretending to be utility workers.

Cops fanned out yesterday to deal with looters around the city.

“We will not tolerate these scumbags looting. We will arrest them on sight,” said a police source.

Monday, October 29, 2012

About a year ago you ran a Praxis on military pants suspenders. In response I bought two pairs at $9 @ and used one pair at work. They were everything the praxis said, but recently one of the straps tore. I went looking for a more available substitute and found one, and it was cheaper. This may be useful for anyone unable to find the
GI originals.

Walmart carries suspenders under the George brand at $6.50 @. There are two styles, one where the crossover is sewn and another where it passes through a triangular buckle that permits you to adjust the location of the crossover. I got the kind with the adjustable crossover. This closed ebay auction has a picture of the style.

I ran the length adjustment out as far as it would go, adjusted the
crossover to roughly match that of the GI style, then at each of the four gripper clips I squeezed the strap to one side and cut the wire loop in the middle then slid the strap off the gripper clip. I then took two carabiner style snap links that I got for 50 cents @ and threaded one through the short and long strap on the left side and the other through the short and long strap on the right side, taking care not to put any twists in the straps. The carabiners are arranged so that the narrow end is up and the wide end hooks through a belt loop.

I've prepared two pair like this. I retain my remaining GI pair at home in case I'm unfortunate enough to need them for serious social purposes, but I use my two modified George pairs at work, alternating them to let them dry better between shifts. I've found that the carabiners are faster and easier to attach and remove from my pants than the hooks on the GI ones were, and when I needed to let the suspenders hang such as when using the toilet the hooks would sometimes come loose while the carabiners don't.

The kind with the non-adjustable cross over could be modified the same way but I'd be worried that the crossover would be too low on the back

I've also retained the gripper clips I've removed. While I don't have any immediate plans, it looks like they might serve as a closure on a pouch if rendered subdued and non reflective. They would be a closure that could also be used to hold the pouch open.

Cold political play could cost him the election. Ken Allard is nobody's fool. This Benghazi deal may finally be the thing that delegitimizes Obama permanently from the military. Not only that, but it has burned up Petraeus' over-blown reputation too. He should have known better than to have become Obama's toady.

Marines, police prep for mock zombie invasion. Given the trouble the military/DHS-types got into the last time when they designated their probable enemies as "Tea Party types," now we have "Zombies" doing decidedly unzombie-like things. Says the note that accompanied this link:

Who here thinks that this exorcise is not what I think it is???? Is this the gov training for martial law right in front of our faces???

"In the scenario, a VIP and his personal detail are trapped in a village, surrounded by zombies when a bomb explodes. The VIP is wounded and his team must move through the town while dodging bullets and shooting back at the invading zombies."

Several things jump out. Zombies doing IEDs? Shooting BACK at zombies, connoting that the zombies were shooting at them? 'Invading' zombies versus just zombies, who technically are indigenous to the area before their transformation.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hurricane Sandy chugged toward the East Coast on Sunday with such enormous size and force that public officials warned of the potential for widespread destruction and disruption for millions of people in its path.

Unfortunately, by Friday you'll be fighting gang-banging looters in the streets. If you get in really deep shit, you could always call on the militia. Oh, wait, nobody is allowed any firearms up there. Well, like the parson said in Blazing Saddles, "Son, you're on your own."

HOUSTON -- Two people were killed in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley after a state trooper flying in a highway patrol helicopter opened fire on a fleeing pickup authorities thought was smuggling drugs, officials said.

No drugs were found inside the truck. Troopers found three people shot inside the truck, two of them dead. The third person was hospitalized and seven others were taken into custody, including one who initially fled, according to the statement. All the passengers and the injured person are suspected to be illegal immigrants, officials said Friday. They did not release the identities of those killed.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife warden tried to pull the truck over about 3 p.m. Thursday on a farm road near La Joya, about 75 miles north of the border, according to authorities.

“The vehicle refused to stop and sped up,” Mike Cox, a spokesman for the agency, told The Times.

As the driver fled, the warden followed in pursuit, radioed for backup, and a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter and ground units were called in to assist, Cox said.

Troopers suspected the driver was smuggling drugs, according to an agency statement released to The Times on Friday by spokesman Tom Vinger. The truck had "a typical 'covered' drug load in the bed," the statement said.

John sent me a link to this article along with this note: "BTW they were going nuts on Twitter last night about Absolved." Now I don't do Twitter or Facebook, but if they don't like the old chapters on the net, they really won't like the reworked version where a S.A.R.T. ("Surgical Asshole Removal Tool", see the chapter "10,000 Lawyers') round turns up a ballistic match to an earlier shooting. All in fiction and all in fun.

Friday, October 26, 2012

"The first covey of partridges I ever saw, they were ruffed grouse but we called them partridges up there, was with my father and an Indian named Simon Green and we came on them dusting and feeding in the sun beside teh grist millon Horton's Creek in Michigan. They looked as big as turkeys to me and I was so excited I missed both shots I had, while my father, shooting an old lever action Winchester pump, killed five out of the covey... -- Ernest Hemingway, "Remembering Shooting -- Flying," in Sporting Classics, December 2012, Page 88.

I have no memories like Hemingway's of my father and hunting. This was not my fault, frankly, but my father's, who never took me. Indeed, he never allowed even so much as a BB gun in the house, since when he was 10 or so he had shot his brother Jack in the eye and, he said, he didn't want that to happen to us.

That's what he said, anyway.

For my father was a fundamentally selfish and emotionally distant man and I rather suspect that the real reason had more to do with the time and effort that would have been lost from other pursuits such as drinking and cheating on my mother.

Or, perhaps I'm being too uncharitable.

I didn't even own a firearm myself until I was 20, when Zane of Zane's Gun Rack on High Street in Columbus, Ohio really scalped me on a World War II production Radom 9mm pistol. (I later was able to return the favor one day when he kid, who didn't know crap from breakfast, was behind the counter and his dad was out, after which I called it even.) My first rifle, for the record, was an M1895 7.65 Argentine carbine made by DWM. I sure miss that little Argey. It waqs a sweet shooter.

Thus it was left to Matthew's mother's father (my future father-in-law) to introduce me to hunting. A hard man, also emotionally closed off to his family, we never hit it off. His favorite nick-name for me was "Harpo." Yet one crisp Buckeye day I was invited to go rabbit hunting with Bob and 9 or 10 of his friends. This seemed like progress, for I really did want to earn his respect.

I was handed a beater single-barrel 12 Gauge and told we would be sweeping a field on line. Given about 20 minutes of instruction by one of Bob's friends which consisted mostly of weapon mechanics and "Do what we do, stay on line and when we come to a fence line we'll take your gun until we get over." I was next to last in line on the right.

For me, the hunt was over almost before it began. We were moving through the field when the center of the line jumped some quail and they took off, veering across our front to the right and thus, toward me. The guy on my immediate left, who had a semi-auto started letting fly then described an arc through my head and let fly on the other side. That muzzle looked as big as the Grand Canyon and as black as a bowling ball when it pointed at my face and I will never forget that shot string, the fuzzy blackness of it, the speed and and the buzzing past my face so close I could feel it on my cheek. It was hot. I swear it was HOT. I couldn't have been close enough to feel that, but it was hot.

Now, immediately after this several things happened at once. The guy who was flanker on my right fed that semi-auto to the idiot. Or maybe he was just threatening to do it. Bob May was laughing his ass off. The rest of the party not amused were walking off. One took his arm and put it around me, I remember that distinctly. I found some place to sit down, exactly when or where in this narrative of events I am still unsure of to this day.

In retrospect, I wondered if the whole thing had been a failed assassination attempt. I never went hunting again and I regret that to this day.

Later, when my own kids came along, I could not transmit what I did not know.

Did I teach them to shoot? Certainly, but poorly, I think. That's why I' going to make sure they get Appleseed training in November. Did I teach them the importance of firearms to our liberty? Certainly. But I had my own failures as a father, too.

As their father, I was always too quick to respond to requests to jump into this fight or that -- to "save the Republic." "Only you can pull this off,Mike," they would say and yet, even if they were right, it took me away from my kids because I said "yes" more often than I should have.

I shorted my kids on time and I now -- too late -- regret it.

That is why the article in Sporting Classics titled "Remembering Shooting -- Flying" by Hemingway hit me so hard the other night. Also in the magazine was "Why I Taught My Boy To Hunt." The combination of the two impacted me greatly.

Take your kids hunting, and hold your kids close. You never know when you might be taken from them or they from you. But memories, like Hemingway's of his father, are forever. So go, now, make some memories before you, like me regret not doing so.

When this monster slams into DC, will the Government Monopoly of Violence Advocates at CSGV still be singing that tune when 9-1-1 no longer works and it is two days post landfall and pillagers are working their street?

This put my SKS project well along in the planning stage. I am attempting a number of things with this project. I have been asked why, indeed, I am trying so hard to build another SKS, which are viewed by some gunnies as, ahem, lesser quality firearms shall we say.

The first reason is that we are coming up on one of those turning of the tides and do not wish to have anything left undone. If I have the parts to build an SKS, then let it be built now. If I have components to put back ammo, then let that too be done before King Barack stays or goes.

The second reason is that this will be something I could not obtain or afford if a found one. A 16.5" Norinco barreled Yugo receiver with a flash suppressor looking something like this that takes AK mags:

The third reason is subversive, and i quote from the aforesaid book:

From The SKS Carbine by Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer:

Yugoslavian SKS Carbine

The first Yugoslavian SKS carbines were imported into the United States by the Mitchell Arms company in 1987. The same year, the first of the flood of Chinese SKS carbines were also imported and sold at a much lower price. It wasn't until 1991 when Congress again amended the 1968 Gun Control Act to allow the importation of obsolete military surplus weapons from the former communist nations of Europe that SKS carbines from other former Communist-Bloc nations were again allowed.

SKS carbines of "military origin": were granted "Curio and Relic " status by the BATF whih meant that they could retain their grenade launchers and attached bayonets. In fact, removing the grenade launcher made the carbine illegal, unless you removed all the other "assault weapon" components and cut off the barrel to remove the offending threads -- or welded a muzzle cover over them.

Catch 22 is alive and well in American firearms regulations -- if you attach the original bayonet to a Chinese-made SKS you are breaking the law. But remove it from a Yugoslav SKS and you are also breaking the law.

And as you know, the 922 Witch at ATF headquarters cackles, "These things must be done delicately." That book will help tremendously.

So, late one night when the demented guy next door was hollering, I ended up watching an episode of Militia Rising, which claims to showcase "America’s Top Militia Forces Prepped For Society’s Worst-Case-Scenarios."

Not really. The best groups never, ever go around television cameras. So I suppose Discovery settled for what they could get. There were three units of the "Watchmen" in this episode, one in Arizona, one in Indiana and one in Florida.

Without knowing anything else but what was shown, these are my reactions:

The Florida bunch impressed me the most, although why, oh, why, do most militia trainers believe that they have to do a poor, but louder, imitation of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket?

The Hoosier bunch should have hid their commander under the rubric of a staff officer or something and found another trainer. Here he is, showing skin, not an attractive thing for a training officer:

Worse for the Hoosiers was the part about shelter construction. Rather than have an instructional unit that taught what to do and how to do it with everyone pitching in and the Training NCO assisting and supervising as needed (which would have finished the job much faster -- and believe me there is nothing more in short supply on a training weekend than time), they sort of threw the newbies into the water and ridiculed them when they drowned. THEN they wasted more time correcting the shelter. Poor, very poor. Also, Alabama, like Indiana, has plenty of trees which they of course utilized, but what if you guys have to erect a shelter with running a rope from tree to tree? They should know how to do that.

The worst group was the Arizona mob, since property and Border Patrol issues were not addressed and they just looked slap dangerous and cowboy. I've done the Minuteman thing and appreciate its limitations but these guys scare the shit outta me. There's a lot of ways to patrol those areas that interdicts the smuggling without involving getting your men killed to no purpose.

You still haven't seen "America’s Top Militia Forces" on television, although I will say that those Florida guys show promise.

If Obama loses the election, it will be FOX's publication of the State Department emails that will have killed his re-election chances. We are now seeing is the difference between Benghazi and Gunwalker. Fast and Furious was run as a classic black bag op with informal lines of communication, command and control. The State Department has completely standardized ways of handling things through procedures that cannot be circumvented.

I heard Mittens say on FOX one night that he had a "movement." Mittens has no "movement" that I know of, unless it might be a bowel movement he's referring to. What he has politically is a disparate anti-Obama coalition that couldn't agree on how to organize a two car funeral.

He is only the nominee because, in spite of every so-called conservative opposed to him in the primaries, he is the last man standing. More to the point, this anti-Obama coalition will disappear with the election regardless of who wins or loses.

The GOP elites, who foisted this candidate upon us, will believe (in the event of a win) that they had a pretty good bead on things all along and that the Tea Party hooligans can go back in their holes for at least another two years. If they lose, they will blame it on those same Tea Party folks who will not have done enough for their party.

Like the Irish discussing their history, the GOP elites will have forgotten nothing and learned nothing, which will leave the rest of us fighting a political rear-guard action for the Constitution just as we did in the Dubya years.

Of course, I suppose that is preferable to the probable civil war we'll be fighting if Obama's movement -- which is truly a movement -- wins. Although that could be a foregone conclusion anyway, for they will not react well to loss especially of White House and Senate, in addition to the House.

If the Democrat Socialists believe that they can achieve more from the meme "Whitey stole it from you,' they will use it and people will die in the streets.

As a friend said the other day. "One day they're (the race baiters) are going to claim we are killing them because they're black, and they'll be right." He did not want to see that day but didn't know how -- with the race baiting combined with the destruction of the black family and the entitlement society -- we can avoid it.

Looks like we'll have the porch rebuilt with the help of an old friend by Saturday. If somebody happens by and sees me coming down the steps they'll probably think that I'm just returned from a fast commuter flight from Cap'n Tony's in Key West. My neighborhood nickname will probably be changed to "Lurch."

"You Rang?"

And for all you folks who tweaked me about "left leaning," I promise to put a new meaning to the phrase.

I can now maneuver with walker and wheelchair ("weak side foot when going down the steps, strong side foot when going up") and I'm darn glad to get away from hospital food. God bless you all who supported us by prayer and other means while I was in. Just running back and forth and parking taxed Rosey's ability to stay within budget.

I met many others in the hospital who are in my prayers including "J," and his wife. Please keep them in yours' as well. Speaking of Hemingway (the obscure Cap'n Tony's reference), I will have more on him later -- on him and on fathers, sons and hunting, as well as a full plate of commentary. I'm back in the fight.

Doing a favor. Got a physical therapist whose son is relocating from B'ham to San Antonio. We need info on best places to live in area -- safety and money obviously a consideration. Please email GeorgeMason1776@aol.com.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

That's both good and bad, The recovery is being described as nothing less than "miraculous" I still lean to the left and have to have my front step rebuilt (no handrail) so I can get up and down, in and out. Will have to get some specs and a quote (bill of material, etc). I sure can't build this one like I did the last one. I mean they want me out of here as soon as Thursday. I can crawl up and down for a few days, but c'mon.

Now those of you who have sent me some magazines, hold up. Those who are still sending subscriptions, God bless you, but make sure you send to the PO Box or PayPal. God bless you all through this last travail.

LATER: My daughter's boyfriend is going to trade some labor for his FEG Browning Hi-Power Clone pistol being fixed by a buddy, whom I will reimburse.

Not a small electric one, not a medium gas powered version, not a big diesel booger in a woodlot in Skokie. In fact, the only wood chipper I ever got close to belonged ro my grandfather, and it was broken. (All true.)

We came from a long line of Michigan wood choppers so my inexperience with the tools was not a given. Indeed, my grandfather acquired an allergy to Canadian wood choppers, going so far as to assert that the real reason that Canadians put a maple leaf on their flags has something to do with substitute toilet paper for lumberjacks.

But I recall from an early age being warned "Stay away from those, they're dangerous." When I was older, I saw the movie Fargo and I knew that Saddam Hussein used to put his political opponents in them. Wood chippers were bad. Everybody knew that.

It wasn't until I got to Alabama and had a yard big enough with plenty of brush that I discovered what a useful useful tool they really were.. Huh. Who would have thought?

Do you begin to understand, Mr. Wendt, how ridiculous and stupid your assignment of evil to a mere tool is? How goofy your anthropomorphization of inanimate steel, wood and plastic really is? A firearm is a tool, just like a wood chipper. Of course firearms are liberty tools of great utility in resisting criminals, both freelance and government-sponsored. As my friend Kurt Hofmann paraphrases Edmund Burke by the lights of the funeral pyres of Twentieth Century holocausts, evil exists only because good men don't kill the government officials committing it."

I found your paper's obsession with the 10 percent of the law-abiding who carry legal concealed weapons to be laughable. Do the demographics, do the crime statistics and then do the math -- there's undoubtedly double that amount of criminals packing heat at any given moment -- yet it is us, the law abiding who "make you nervous?"

Mr. President, you said you were waiting foe the Office of Inspector General''s report on the Fast and Furious Scandal which used the resources of the ATF to put so-called assault weapons in the hands of Mexican drug lords before you took action. The report has been out for weeks now, you've still done nothing and the culpable members of your administration are still drawing paychecks, hiding behind your assertion of executive privilege.

I have a promise, not a question. If you haven't revoked the executive privilege order that is keeping Brian Terry's mother from finding out how her son died by the time you leave office in January, then if the American people give me the chance, I will. There are also hundreds of Mexican mothers waiting for the same answers.

History, Mr. President, will judge you and so will the mothers of the victims of Fast & Furious.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

I'm also working on planning a mixed ancestry Yugoslav receiver and Norinco barrel SKS-D with an AK magazine well. If anybody has any tips or experience with such a silly business let me know.
Also Matt wants to get into C.W. reenacting with his sons when he comes back from Afghanistan so if anybody see's a beater .58 caliber musket they want to sell, let me know. Even a Zouave would be fine because he began his re-enacting years ago with a re-worked Zouave by Gary Presley of Columbiana transmogrified into a n Alabama-made Dickson-Nelson cavalry carbine which wasn't very accurate but I feel with the help of Len Savage, they could craft something far more close to reality.
Anyway, let me know.

Monday, October 15, 2012

I'm still having technical difficulties with using this laptop here and interfacing with the hospital WiFi. Hopefully I'll get it fixed by this evening. I'm interested to know how things went -- how much ammo was sold, how many guns, what was the attitude of the participants. Please leave comments.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Obviously I won't be there. But that doesn't mean that some of you local newbies who were looking for deals and guidance have to do without advice. Some of you who have received equipment from me in the past have my cell phone number. If you see something that you think might be a deal and want some advice, feel free to call me. One thing that has been true at recent Birmingham shows is the unexpected influx of M2A1 ("fifty cal.") and M19A1 ("thirty cal.") steel ammo cans at reasonable prices. Since the original source of these was a massive buy by an entrepreneur from the CMP program in Anniston (which is unlikely to be repeated) I would suggest you get as many as possible while they're still available at good prices. A buddy bought 5 one-use, clean and tight M19A1s for $20 at the last show -- $4.00 each. Be sure to inspect the inside of the cans and the seals for serviceability.

There are also ammo suppliers who sell empty ChiCom pattern crates (which will hold two M19A1s nestled flat) for as little as $2.00 each. These are the kind of items that, were I able, I would be buying.

Also, there are a couple of you Threepers who are working on your field telephony equipment. Be certain to check with me before buying any phones or reels.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

It seems I had both a minor stroke of the cerebellum controlling my internal gyroscope AND a minor stroke of my brain stem. Consequently I'm going to be admitted to the hospital tomorrow prior to what were to have been outpatient tests. Will post room number and address when I know. Keep me in your prayers.

At the beginning of a 4th Generation civil war, everybody starts with a finite amount of ammunition. The ones who never run out are those who make every round count and thus are able to forage out the ammo pouches of the dead men who didn't. That's why marksmanship training matters." -- Mike Vanderboegh, 2010.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Have to crawl upstairs now and lay down. I would like to thank all those hard-core Irregulars who have sent their subscription money (and more) recently and also remind anybody that if you've been holding off, now is a great time to forward it. The additional medical bills are substantial. God bless you all.

As far as the “prags” go, I don’t consider them cowards, or collaborators, or many of the other insults that “3 percenters” have tossed their way. I do consider them vastly overly optimistic about the prospects of gun rights prevailing through solely “within the system” activism. They remind me a bit of Neville Chamberlain, with the Heller decision being their Munich Agreement (and by the way–don’t give me Godwin’s Law–that ain’t what this is about).

And this brings me to the source of my confusion. The “pragmatic” strategy, apparently, requires gun rights activists to count on the Constitution for protection against people who have made it absolutely clear that they consider the Constitution to be so much Charmin substitute. At least one “prag,” for example, has railed against some other gun rights advocates, for their refusal to vote for one of the chief architects of one of the most brazen attacks on the First Amendment in recent history.

I have frequently criticized proponents of restrictive gun laws for their bizarre “strategy” of attempting to use laws to rein in the behavior of the lawless. I can’t really see much of a difference between that, and counting on the Constitution to protect freedom from those bent on subverting it.
-- What I don’t understand about ‘pragmatism’

"Questions? Questions? We don' need no steenking questions!"

So, today I had an MRI brain scan. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a Magnetic Resonance Angiogram scan. It seems that my vertigo was generated by a small stroke in the center of the brain that controls balance -- a stroke that took place, according to the doctor with the first onset of symptoms, the afternoon of 29 September 2012 while I was at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Orlando.

My wife didn't want me to go, but since my way was being paid by a good friend who thought it important to be there, I went to support his efforts. I was already struggling with nausea caused by the anti-cancer medicine I was taking. I was weak and certainly should have stayed home, but I didn't. Some you may have seen me stagger out of the reception Saturday evening. I wasn't drunk, despite the rumors. I haven't had a drink in ten years. But sometime between the morning and the evening I had the stroke. And what happened that day? I tried to ask a question and was cut off by the prags in charge of the conference.

My question was occasioned by statements made by Mark Barnes in this panel early in the morning:

Joe Waldron, legislative director, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

There was a 11:45 a.m. Q & A scheduled on all morning panels but they announced that because of time constraints it would be postponed into the afternoon at 5:30 p.m. Among Mark Barnes statements I wished to question were these:

** We should not wish to sweep out the "old hands" of ATF because they exercised a "moderating" influence on the young cowboys and,

** That we too should understand that a permanent director was a good thing for the agency.

There was also a general feeling expressed by many speakers that the GOP would save us from the big bad boogie men of gun control, especially through the courts.

When the afternoon Q&A finally arrived, I was the first at the microphone, yet I never got a chance to ask my questions -- I was cut off. Here is the question I was never allowed to ask, for the record, from my original crumpled single sided note pad paper:

"I have a couple quick comments on the first panel and a question, which speak to the reality we face as far as the rule of law and the legitimacy of the two party regime:"

(Here was about where I was cut off.)

"Over a year ago the ATF whistleblowers were promised oversight hearings into ATF policies and procedures, Thanks to the intervention of John "Ol Yellowstain" Boehner, that has not happened."

"As far as the moderating effect of 'old hands,' I'll believe that when ATF ceases its 10 year persecution of an 'economic Waco' on Georgia firearms designer Len Savage, whose only sin was to successfully testify as an expert witness on behalf of ATF victims."

"As far as a 'permanent director for ATF, if Obama had his way we would have Chicago anti-firearm zealot Traver instead of the bumbling Melson."

I was going to conclude this preamble with this:

"My question is, does anyone on the panel believe that if Obama is reelected that we can avoid a civil war?"

That's the question I never got to ask, presented here for the record. After being repeatedly cut off, I wadded up the notepaper and threw it to the floor, and walking away from the microphone said, "Okay, here's my question, 'What does anybody on first panel believe we are going to do WHEN Obama is reelected?'" I then walked to the back of the room.

Shortly thereafter, or perhaps before, I had my little stroke, although it took until today to diagnose it. What was so inherently dangerous for Gottlieb and Company in that question, I do not know. I was warmly greeted by participants, both personally and with applause when my name was mentioned. Who knows what motivates Prags? All in all, it was a waste of blood pressure.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

"I, myself, remained on the balcony and fired at the confused and embarrassed Germans with my Mauser. From my balcony, I could see them in all their helplessness and their loss of control. The air was full of wails and shouts. Many of them tried to run to the walls of the houses for cover but everything was barred and beyond that, death was pursuing them. In the noise, the fluster, and the cries of the wounded, we heard the astonished outcry of one of the Germans: 'Juden haben waffen! Juden haben waffen!' ('The Jews have arms!') . . .

The battle lasted for about a half an hour. The Germans withdrew and there were many corpses and wounded in the street." -- Recollection of the opening engagement on 19 April 1943 of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Haim Frymer, Jewish Fighting Organization, quoted in Resistance by Israel Gutman, New York, 1994, pp. 206-207.

CSGV and their fellow travelers are so committed to their sick agenda of a "government monopoly on force" that they wish death on those who would make that monopoly impossible. Such people are exactly the reason the "Wiki Weapon" project is so vital to not only Americans, but to the world.

It seems that mild to severe vertigo is a frequent side effect of Gleevec, the cancer medicine I am taking. Well, I've sure got it. Am laying off the Gleevec at doctor's orders for the next few days to see if it eases. Until then, it is difficult to make it down the stairs to the computer. Sorry. Keep me in your prayers.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The inability to walk a straight line which first showed up at the Gun Rights Policy Conference is getting worse. Might be an inner ear infection, might be something worse. Going to the doctor tomorrow to see which.

The Brady Campaign has asked Jim Lehrer, moderator of tonight’s debate between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney, to deviate from the announced agenda and ask the candidates questions about “gun violence,” a press release issued yesterday by the group announced.

“Splendid idea,” Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman agreed. "Romney’s first and best answer to such a question would be that within 24 hours after taking office, he would order his attorney general to enforce the contempt of Congress citation against Eric Holder. And, Romney could add, he would also order his attorney general to fire those responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, and if warranted, pursue criminal charges against them.”

A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone's ability to control.

What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.

The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting. . .

Meanwhile, federal intelligence agencies were under orders from Congress to hire more analysts. That meant state and local agencies had to compete for smart counterterrorism thinkers. And federal training for local analysts wasn't an early priority.

Though fusion centers receive money from the federal government, they are operated independently. Counterterrorism money started flowing to states in 2003. But it wasn't until late 2007 that the Bush administration told states how to run the centers.

Under federal law, that was fine. When lawmakers enacted recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in 2007, they allowed fusion centers to study "criminal or terrorist activity." The law was co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, the driving forces behind the creation of Homeland Security.

Five years later, Senate investigators found, terrorism is often a secondary focus.

"Many fusion centers lacked either the capability or stated objective of contributing meaningfully to the federal counterterrorism mission," the Senate report said. "Many centers didn't consider counterterrorism an explicit part of their mission, and federal officials said some were simply not concerned with doing counterterrorism work."

When Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary in 2009, the former Arizona governor embraced the idea that fusion centers should look beyond terrorism. Testifying before Congress that year, she distinguished fusion centers from the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces that are the leading investigative and analytical arms of the domestic counterterrorism effort.

"A JTTF is really focused on terrorism and terrorism-related investigations," she said. "Fusion centers are almost everything else."

Congress, including the committee that authored the report, supports that notion. And though the report recommends the Senate reconsider the amount of money it spends on fusion centers, that seems unlikely.

"Congress and two administrations have urged DHS to continue or even expand its support of fusion centers, without providing sufficient oversight to ensure the intelligence from fusion centers is commensurate with the level of federal investment," the report said.

And following the release of the report, Homeland Security officials indicated their continued strong support for the program.

The report demands a detailed study, which I am going to give later this week.

As Wikipedia reports the good and bad of uninsulated metal as a canteen:

Metal water bottles are growing in popularity. Made primarily from stainless steel or aluminum they are very durable and retain minimal odor or taste from contents. Aluminum bottles contain a plastic resin or epoxy liner to protect contents from taste and odor transfer. Although most liners are now BPA free, older and less expensive models can contain BPA. It is not recommended to fill aluminum bottles with acidic liquids (e.g. orange juice) as this could cause aluminum to leach into the contents of the bottle. Stainless steel bottles do not contain a liner but have been known to transfer a metallic taste and odor to contents. Bottles made with food grade (Type 304 or 18/8) stainless steel do not transfer taste or odor. Depending on the type of source material and manufacturing process behind your stainless steel bottle, trace amounts of minerals can leach into contents. Metal water bottles can be heavier than their plastic counterparts and readily transfer temperature of contents to external surfaces which makes them unsuitable for use with very hot or very cold liquids.

The last sentence is a real downer, but it can be remedied by making your own insulated cover with general instructions found here:

“We’re entering territory we have never entered before,” said Caddell. “We’ve never had a situation where the press has purposefully decided to pick up a narrative rom the White House to not tell people things that happened in order to support their overwhelming candidate for president, Barack Obama.”

“This isn’t about partisanship, this is about danger,” said Caddell. He equated the media to “Pravda,” a newspaper which was owned and operated by the state in the Soviet Union. Caddell went on to say that the problem of bias should be obvious citing how the story of the Libya attacks and subsequent mishandling of the response by the administration was not covered widely.

This is unfortunate. I met the film makers at the Gun Rights Policy Conference and the project seems very worthy to me. If you have some extra dough that you can spare, you might want to send it his way.

Jack Kelly is a former Army Special Forces officer who made the leap into another kind of excrement when he became a journalist. He's been a damn fine journalist at that, writing honestly and forthrightly about subjects. I know that because he has occasion to do a story on the militias in the 90s, and he interviewed me, quoting me accurately and treating the subject fairly. Now Jack applies the same instincts to Afghanistan and he's ready to pull the plug.

The war in Afghanistan effectively ended last week. We lost.

The last of the surge troops President Barack Obama sent there were quietly withdrawn. They did not leave in triumph. . .

To someone like me who has a son over there, this comes as no surprise. But I always like to view things from the bright side -- let's bring the troops home now, in time for a little R&R in the Land of the Big PX before they have to go back into action in the civil war that will likely break out after the re-election of Obama validates and accelerates his appetites for more of our liberty and property.

Randal: Now the first one they built was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.

Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where it's due.

Randal:And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.

Dante: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.

Randal: Something just never sat right with me the second time they destroyed it. I could never put my finger on it-something just wasn't right.

Dante: And you figured it out?

Randal: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.

Dante: Basically.

Randal: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is punished.

Dante: And the second time around...?

Randal: The second time around, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.

Dante: So?

Randal: A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.

Dante: Not just Imperials, is what you're getting at.

Randal: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.

Dante: All right, so even if independent contractors are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with its destruction?

Randal: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed- casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. (notices Dante's confusion) All right, look-you're a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia-this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn't ask for that. You have no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.

(The Blue-Collar Man (Thomas Burke) joins them.)

Blue-Collar Man: Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but what were you talking about?

Randal: The ending of Return of the Jedi.

Dante: My friend is trying to convince me that any contractors working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when the space station was destroyed by the rebels.

Blue-Collar Man: Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs.

Randal: Like when?

Blue-Collar Man: Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was.

Dante: Whose house was it?

Blue-Collar Man: Dominick Bambino's.

Randal: "Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?

Blue-Collar Man: The same. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine.

Dante: Based on personal politics.

Blue-Collar Man: Right. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling.

Randal: No way!

Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have joined forces on a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice, to study the impact of a collaborative project among the ATF, fusion centers, and local law enforcement to analyze firearms trace data along the northeast corridor of Interstate 95. This article highlights the work that carries forward the ATF’s commitment to improving the collection, the analysis, and use of firearms trace data in investigations.

Mind you, the eTrace system upon which this proposal is based is shot full of chaos and inefficiencies -- multiple traces, administrative traces having nothing to do with crime, etc -- and this proposal would provide trace information to people and organizations who, according to one of sources, "have no business in the law to it." And Arends understands the legal mienfield he is proposing to defeat by evasion:

While the ATF’s policy of not sharing one agency’s trace data with another agency does exist, there are still ways in which multiple agencies can work together using trace data.

Arends concludes:

BJA Grant to the IACP: Examine the iTrafficking Program

In December 2010, the BJA awarded a $250,000 grant to IACP to research and examine iTrafficking to determine ways in which gun trace data could more effectively be included in fusion center intelligence reports and business practice. To date, the project has accomplished the following:

* An advisory group was selected in concert with the IACP Firearms Committee to guide project development and implementation.

* A fusion center survey instrument was circulated to assess the state of practice on crime gun tracing policies.

* The project team is consolidating information from site visits to complete a promising practices document by fusion centers currently collecting crime gun tracing data.

* The project team continues to search for any statutory issues and barriers to impede implementation of a crime gun tracing intelligence sharing strategy.

* A mobile app was designed and distributed by the project team

using the ATF’s Police Officers Guide to Recovered Firearms. Since its launch in January, more than 21,000 downloads have been counted. This app is part of the project’s push to improve firearms tracing.

IACP staff is examining the results of the fusion center interviews and will assess the fusion center surveys once all are received. Finally, IACP staff will prepare and disseminate a firearms tracing intelligence-sharing strategy report that summarizes the review and the evaluation of iTrafficking. This review ideally will be used by fusion center personnel and all state, local, and tribal law enforcement to assist in the examination of firearms trace data used in intelligence products and criminal investigations.

The integration of firearms trace data into the fusion centers results in even closer collaboration among federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement. As fusion centers evolve into all-crime and all-hazards intelligence centers, a focus on firearms tracing and firearms trafficking enhances the collaborative environment. (Emphasis supplied, MBV.) The IACP is looking forward to sharing best practices, educational material, and other information that results from this initiative.

"The integration of firearms trace data into the fusion centers results in even closer collaboration among federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement. As fusion centers evolve into all-crime and all-hazards intelligence centers, a focus on firearms tracing and firearms trafficking enhances the collaborative environment."

That is what this is all about, in addition to sharing eTrace data with people who have no legal right to it -- the vertical integration of all law enforcement with the Feds at the top of the food chain, able to spy on local law enforcement, use them as cat's paws in investigations and escape all blowback if the operation goes south.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.